THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010486
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Cpl. Joseph Yawn fought the Persian Gulf War in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert.
For more than a month, he lived in a truck parked in the dusty brown terrain. He slept in a makeshift hammock and showered using gallon jugs of water.
When Yawn left the gulf region in 1991 he thought he had left the desert behind.
But a residue lingered - in the form of four cysts on his back that were caused by a combination of sand and poor living conditions.
Though the cysts were later removed in surgery and did not reappear, the condition recently cost Yawn an ROTC scholarship at Old Dominion University, where he was hoping to train as an Army officer.
He has launched a campaign to win the honor back.
In the past several weeks, Yawn, who works for United Parcel Service, has written local congressmen, senators and President Clinton. He has taken his appeal to the headquarters of the Army Cadet Command, which is based at Fort Monroe.
All to no avail.
``It's not fair,'' said Yawn, 24. ``They haven't shown me that I'm not qualified.''
At issue are four pilonidal cysts that were cut out of the base of Yawn's spine in 1991, following the tour in the desert.
The cysts, sacks of tissue and hair located below the tailbone, were discovered in October 1991 after Yawn had returned to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., where he was stationed with the 82nd Airborne.
The cysts started bleeding at the end of a long, bumpy ride in a truck. They were removed by Army doctors and Yawn returned to active duty after a 30-day leave, jumping out of airplanes and going on 12-mile road marches.
In the fall of 1992, Yawn decided to leave the Army and go to college. A longtime resident of Hampton Roads, he moved to the area and enrolled at Old Dominion. He signed up for Army ROTC.
``Eventually I wanted to go back in and make it a career,'' Yawn said. ``My father was career military. It is in our family. It goes way back.''
On his way out of the Army, Yawn was advised by a representative from the Department of Veterans Affairs to apply for a medical disability because of the cysts and his gulf war service.
Yawn did and was awarded a 10 percent medical disability, though he acknowledged he didn't need it. The payments would come back to haunt him.
In February 1994, Yawn competed for and won a two-year ROTC scholarship that was to start in the 1994-1995 school year. As part of that competition, he was asked to go through a routine series of physical tests, including pull ups, a 50-yard dash and throwing a basketball. He was told he passed.
One month later, he was sent to Fort Monroe for a routine physical. He disclosed on a medical form that he had been diagnosed with pilonidal cysts and had them removed. He reported receiving $87 a month from the VA.
Yawn was sent to the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, where a doctor examined him and declared healed the area where the cysts had been. He would go on to see two other doctors, who confirmed that opinion.
But in May 1994, the scholarship was yanked. The cadet command deemed Yawn unfit medically to serve because of the cysts.
The Army determined Yawn had a ``history of disability from pilonidal cyst,'' according to a Dec. 8, 1994, letter from the cadet command.
Still, Yawn has refused to give up the fight.
``I want to go back in the service. I had my mind set on it,'' Yawn said, in the living room of his Virginia Beach home. ``I love active duty. I love the structure. It's great. It's teamwork. I don't see that in the civilian world.
``I miss it. I miss it bad.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Cpl. Joseph Yawn left the Army in 1992 to go to college. He had
planned to rejoin later, then learned he had been deemed medically
unfit because of four cysts removed in 1991.
by CNB